Vex Post
(Earth, Jordaan Industries HQ, Syldor’s Office - Eng/Ops, Ens(jg) Vex’ahlia Jordaan - 1030)
She’d seen photos of this office numerous times, photos of her father and mother closing deals with clients, fun looking events that she’d never been warranted access to & business events she’d never been asked to attend. The office looked entirely different now however, due to the fact that the family business was being packed up and moved back to Betazoid. Her parents were returning home and leaving Earth behind due to fractures which had begun appearing within the planets society.
She stood at the window-wall of the office, an office which was on the 73rd floor of a 73 floored building. The view from the window was inescapably beautiful and she had a hard time comprehending how her father could have spent his life looking out over the city and not falling in love with the planet, or the city at the very least. He had not however and neither had his partner in both business and life, Elaina. They had moved to Earth to make their billions on the back of softer Starfleet regulations and a weaker Federation fleet and that’s what they had done.
Vex was the product of absentee parenting, she loathed and loved both of her parents in a chaotic but somewhat symbiotic relationship. She had been shipped off to the most expensive boarding school money could buy as soon as they were capable, only returning home during the holiday periods to be looked after by the finest tutors that could be liberated from their own families.
It had only gotten worse when her mother had passed, Vex could remember it as if it were yesterday. She’d been summoned away from one of her classes and called to the headmistress’ office, upon opening the door, her father, a man of little emotion available to her was stood waiting. Syldor whisked her away to their private residence, where her mother lay on her deathbed. Iverson’s Disease was particularly nasty to her mother and the fact that she had been suffering for some time without ever letting it be known had angered Vex to this day. She could have spent more time with her mother, been called to see her sooner.
Since then her father had cut himself off from her even further. He continued to pay for her education and anything else she required but conversations between he and his daughter became sparse and with little feeling. That was until the time came that she had decided to join StarFleet Academy, obsessed with Mechanical Engineering for most of her adolescence she had made the decision to join and try and help rebuild the organisation that was for the most part the planet she’d grown up on’s defence & security.
Syldor had seen it through a different lense, he saw it was a betrayal. ~This betrays your mother's memory!~ he had said, ~Her plan, was always, that you would take her role. You would use your education to further the business. And NOW you decide to join StarFleet. Psh~
Vex had never anticipated joining the family business. It had never been something she saw in her future, her parents had never given any sort of direction that, that was what they had planned for her at all.
All of this flooded through her mind, as she stood there and looked out over the city skyline. She heard the door open and close behind her and a man's steps come towards her and then cease. She only had to flick out with her mind, to acknowledge that it was indeed the man who had summoned her, the man she hadn’t spoken to in 5 years, her father. She turned around to look at him, perhaps expecting to see an apology written across his face. She sighed lightly as what she saw was the same stubborn expression on his face as always.
“::Father::.” she said and thought pointedly.
“Vex’ahlia” he said as a large gasp of air escaped his lungs. “It’s marvelous to see you. I’m sorry it’s been so long, I’ve been, ah, busy, as you would expect.” he walked around her and sat behind his desk- the only thing still not packed up and shipped off to Betazed. Vex watched him as he did so and then sat down opposite him.
“I expected so,” she said and then briefly waved her hand around the office. She closed her mental abilities off from the man. For an older Betazoid, he was far less disciplined in the art of mental communication. He preferred to communicate using words and she knew why, but paid it no attention at this particular moment. “I have come because of your summons. What is it you wish of me father?” she was in no mind to play his game.
He looked at her shiftly, obviously trying to decide on the best way to say whatever it was he brought her for. “Come out with it man.” She said, her temper getting the better of her. This seemed to shock him into action.
“Vex’ahlia.” He said slowly, “I understand you have now completed your mandatory Starfleet training and are now waiting for your first assignment?” Syldor smiled as he said the word first.
“Yes, this is true. Graduated with flying colours.” She hated herself for adding the last part, she couldn’t help herself but brag a little. A part of her still wanted this man to love her, to be proud.
“Excellent.. Excellent… Congratulations are in order then I suppose?!” he opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of something expensive. “Shall we toast to your graduation?”
This was a confusing turn of events, completely unexpected and not in line with what she knew of her father. “If you want to.” she said as she leaned forward and grabbed the nearest crystal glass after he poured the drink into it. She tasted it, it was OK, but not better to her mind than a glass of milk or water.
“Congratulations then, sincerely. Do you know what you will be doing next?” he said as he sat back down into his seat and leaned back.
“It’s not up to me, I don’t have a choice in where I’m sent father. You know how the military works, you’ve worked with them for years. I await my assignment with bated breath.” the truth was, that she’d expected to have received notification of an assignment days ago. She had noted so many of the other junior Ensigns heading off to assignments and could not work out why she had not been included.
Her father nodded in response, “You could always rejoin me on Betazed.” he said this lightly, clearly testing the water.
“No, I could not.” she said staring at him.
“Come home with me Vex’ahlia. The business will run itself, we could be a proper family. Or you could run it. That would be proper.”
“Earth IS my home. You & mother saw to that when you moved us here and sent me off on my own to boarding school after boarding school. You saw to that when you cut me off when I decided to join Starfleet” She could see the pain in his eyes when she mentioned mother. “...And I will not betray my instructors at Starfleet. I’ve spent the best part of 5 years training to be an officer and I will see it through.”
“Ok.. OK. It was just a thought.” he said, defeated but clearly not finished. “I am moving the business back to Betazed, you might have read about it recently. Earth is not what it used to be, the bombings and now Starfleet seemingly reenfusing itself with energy, the time is now for us to leave.”
“I had read about it, are you sure it’s not because you’re under investigation by the authorities?” Vex had made it a point to keep tabs on the news articles surrounding her family business over the years of training. She’d tried to distance herself from the family name in the first few months, but it soon came out that she was the heiress to a minor fortune which just added to her misery.
“Pish. Fake news, is what I call that. No investigation are even happening. No, the truth is, since your mother… since she was lost to us. The place has never felt the same.” he downed the remainder of his drink. “I don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to see you, and Congratulate you. Give it some thought Vex’ahlia. Come to Betazed, I have plenty of pull. You could do so and not betray your Starfleet colleagues. I’m sure they’d be looking for a Betazoid Starfleet Liaison officer, a role I’m sure you’d be aptly suited for.” he stood up and moved around the desk, Vex followed as he headed for the door.
In truth that was a role Vex knew herself to be uniquely unqualified for. She may be a betazoid and a starfleet officer. But communicating and being the Starfleet liaison to a planet, would be something she’d be awful at. She was far more comfortable dissecting the innards of a machine, pulling it apart and putting it back together. That’s where her peace was, in the silent whir or a machine doing its job correctly.
“It’s been lovely to see you again Father.” she said, “I will return to base and see what my future holds. You know where I am if you have need of me.”
He pulled her into a one arm awkward hug for but a second and then handed her a datapadd and as she walked into the turbolift his back was already too her.
~At least I’m no longer excommunicated from the family~ she thought to herself as she said “Level 1” and the turbolift began moving. As the lift did it’s job she activated the padd and read through the contents.
~I will not use this unless its an emergency~ she thought to herself. If this was her father's way of reaching out and trying to say sorry, it was extraordinarily over the top. There was now an account in her name set up with a sizeable fortune deposited. ~At the very least, If I never get an assignment. I can retire and just disappear~ she naughtily thought to herself.
